Page 24 of Secrets in the Deep

“I’m okay,” she pushed. “And more than that, I achieved everything you knew I would. So it was worth it.”

There was a hollowness to her words. He heard it. Fuck, he felt it.

Nothing about this was okay. Not the crash. Not her knee.

Slowly, she pulled her legs off his lap. “I should go.”

No. He didn’t want her to go. He didn’t want her out of his damn sight.

But she wasn’t his. He’d made sure of that five years ago.

She was almost at the door, when he called, “Wait.” He took her bowl into the kitchen and transferred the mac and cheese into a container.

She shook her head. “You didn’t need to do that.”

“You forget to eat after long days.”

Her eyes flared. Because she was surprised he remembered? She obviously didn’t know that he’d memorized every little thing about her a long time ago. Her favorite flower was the scarlet-redIndian paintbrush. Floral wallpaper reminded her of her favorite person—her grandmother.

“Thank you.” Gently, she took the container, and as she did, their hands grazed. It was barely a touch. A whisper of skin against skin. But it felt like a flame, burning his flesh.

Of their own volition, his feet inched forward.

“Ryan…” She whispered his name, but there was nothing in her voice that told him she wanted him to step back and put distance between them.

So he didn’t.

He cupped her cheek, and fuck, it felt like he held the entire world in the palm of his hand. “I missed you.”

She leaned into his touch, closing her eyes and just sitting in the moment for a second.

When she opened her eyes, they shifted to his mouth.

That was all it took. One glance and he was moving. Lowering.

He kissed her.

For the first time in five years, he felt her lips again. And it was like a piece of him had finally returned. Like he was whole again.

He moved his lips against hers. They were just as soft as he remembered. Soft and pliant and so fucking responsive.

She opened, and he slipped inside. Then he was tasting her, and that sweet wild berry flavor he’d been deprived of for so long consumed him.

He turned slightly and pressed her to the wall. She groaned, her back arching, her chest pushing into him.

He lowered his hands to her ass and lifted her, her legs immediately wrapping around his waist.

They’d always fit like this. Like two pieces of a puzzle that had been perfectly cut to be together. He’d never forgotten. Not howshe felt. Not how she completed him. None of it. It had all lived inside him since the day they’d met.

He kissed down her cheek and jawline. “I’m sorry, Emi. I’m so damn sorry.”

“You are?”

He reached her neck and sucked, like she was a luscious fruit he was trying to devour. “That night, that crash, it shouldn’t have happened.”

She tensed. Her body turned so hard it was like every bit of softness just leaked out of her. “You’re sorry about the crash?”

“Yes.”